


That Ain't Smoke Guys

by Banda_Panda8



Series: Hermit Heroes [2]
Category: Hermitcraft RPF
Genre: DON'T SHIP REAL PEOPLE, Etho and Tango are PISSED, M/M, am I the only one?, but they still love their friends, is pretty suggestive though, it's not gonna be smut, its just the personas, not too many though, oops I found another ship, slight sub/dom hints, the other guys need to learn how to knock!, their dynamic is just really cool, there's some language, they're makin out, theyr'e in this universe solely because I needed their powers, this has nothing to do with superheroes, this took me way longer than I'd like to admit to write
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-14
Updated: 2020-07-14
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:40:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,741
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25256320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Banda_Panda8/pseuds/Banda_Panda8
Summary: Impulse enlists the help of some friends to help Tango and Etho hook up. Those friends aren't exactly the brightest when it comes to the difference between smoke and steam.
Relationships: Tango Tek/Etho
Series: Hermit Heroes [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1812286
Comments: 3
Kudos: 66





	That Ain't Smoke Guys

**Author's Note:**

> So, brief explanation, this is in the Hermit Heroes universe, but doesn't have anything to do with actual superhero stuff yet. It is simply because of Tango and Etho's powers. 
> 
> Run down of ages, because these stories will likely not be in chronological order: Doc and Beef are 17; Etho, Bdubs, and Ren are 16; Tango, Impulse, and Zedaph are 15. 
> 
> There is a small reference to why Etho wears his mask, and I do plan on turning that into a story at some point, but just for reference it is because he got burned in a house fire.

"Alright, you guys wanna see something really funny later?" Doc, Bdubs, Beef, Zedaph, and Ren all nodded at Impulse. "Sweet, here's the plan. We gotta get it to where when we play 7 Minutes in Heaven Tango and Etho are the only ones available, and here's how we're gonna do it."

~~

"Okay, so what is this mess of kissification that you've come up with?" Tango sat in the circle Impulse to his left. On Impulse's other side was Zedaph, and next to Zed was Beef, Doc, Bdubs, Etho, and then Ren brought the circle back around to Tango. Rendog smiled when Tango asked the question. Impulse had known that Ren would be the kind of person that came up with such a complicated game, so it was perfect for him to explain. 

"Okay my dudes, so basically what happens is at the beginning of your turn you take a truth or dare. Then, you spin the bottle to see who you're gonna spend 7 minutes in heaven with. It's simple! There is a chance for you to back out of the spin the bottle portion by standing up, but if you do so then you have to take an extra dare. When you do a truth or dare the person to the right of you chooses what it's gonna be." Everyone nodded after Ren got through the explanation and they all grabbed pillows and blankets and made themselves comfortable. Bdubs had his head resting in Doc's lap, and Etho straight up just fell backwards of the ground with his legs still criss crossed in front of him. Once everyone was settled Ren started the game. "Alright Tango, truth or dare."

"Please, is that even a question? Hit me with a dare." Tango didn't notice the evil grin that everyone in the circle seemed to have. 

"Alright my dude, I dare you to sit down or stand up any time I say 'redstone' for the whole night." 

"Pft. You call that a dare?? I can do that in my sleep." Tango reached for the bottle and spun it. When it landed on Zedaph he got a wicked grin on his face and jokingly dragged Zed into the other room. Once the seven minutes were up they both came back laughing their butts off. Every once in a while Ren would say redstone to Tango, just to make sure that he remembered his dare. By the time the game got around the circle Tango was getting restless and was pacing around the outside of the circle. It got to Etho's turn and when Bdubs asked if he wanted truth or dare he nonchalantly said dare.

"Okay Etho, I dare you to play the rest of your round with your eyes closed." Etho just shrugged and used his ice powers to spin the bottle, not even bothering to sit up. Since his eyes were closed however, he didn't realize everyone else silently standing up, and Tango was still pacing with his back currently towards the others. Ren saw this as his opportunity. 

"Hey Tango! Redstone!" 

"Son of a bitch, stop making me sit!" Tango didn't even bother turning around to face Ren, he just crossed his feet and sat. He started juggling a little flame back and forth in his hands, and as he did this the bottle slowed to a stop. It would've been facing towards Doc, and everyone started laughing when neither Tango or Etho realized what had happened. Tango finally turned around to the rest of the circle, only to see Etho still laying on the ground with everyone else standing up waiting to see when he'd realize. 

"Why are you guys standing up? You're all gonna have to take an extra dare now." Tango looked at everyone and all he got back were smirks and winks. Finally Impulse walked over to him and whispered something in his ear that made Tango's face go beat red. Etho finally started to stir when Doc nudged him with his foot.

"Stahp! I'm up, I'm up!" Etho pulled himself up without even using his hands and Tango felt his face go even redder. He looked down before anyone else could see it. 

"Well, my dudes, it looks that Tango is the only one available for the seven minutes in heaven!" Ren clapped his hands and smiled at Tango, who finally realized what they had done to him.

"Ren, please say redstone so I can stand up and kick Impulse's ass." Ren smirked even more and Impulse started laughing. 

"Redstone." Tango jumped up and ran towards Impulse with his hair smoking.

"You motherfucker!" Tango reached Impulse and tackled him to the floor, trying to put him in a headlock. Impulse summoned a stream of water and sent it flying towards Tango's face, which got him off but also made him even more angry. Once Impulse pulled himself off the floor and everyone calmed down Ren spoke up again. 

"Well guys, find a room! Seven minutes starts now!" Etho stood up and walked towards the door, Tango close behind but still glaring at Impulse. He followed Etho into a room down the hall, trying to discern if Etho had caught onto what just happened. It was hard to tell with him wearing the mask, so Tango just kept his head down and stayed quiet. He kept trying to come up with excuses for why he reacted like he did in case Etho asked, and while he was deep in thought be didnt realize Etho had stopped in front of two doors. Tango ran right into Etho's back and mumbled a sorry then promptly took two steps back from Etho. He was startled out of his thoughts again when Etho spoke for the first time since leaving the room. 

"Nice try Tango, but maybe next time tone down the screaming at Impulse. You were really over dramatic with it and it gave your plan away instantly." Tango looked back at Etho with a look of confusion. Did he think Tango was the mastermind behind this? He didn't even realize what was going on then, did he? "How long are you gonna keep up the charade? I figured you out Tango. You told everyone to stand up when it was my turn because you thought it would fluster me and you all would get a kick out of it. Well it hasn't worked." At the end of his sentence Tango could see his eyes fall, but that was the only tell tale sign of Etho's feelings about the situation. Tango couldn't see the blush that was creeping up Etho's face under his mask, and Etho was grateful for it. 

"Etho, this wasn't my plan. My plans are much more fool proof than this, those guys were practically monologuing about their plan." Tango leaned against the wall opposite of Etho. He finally looked around to find that they were outside Etho's room. It was probably a good thing that Etho picked his instead of Tango's, he wasn't even sure you could see where the bed was with all the stuff he had in there. Etho was silent for a bit before he quickly turned around so he was facing the door, his back towards Tango.

"If it wasn't your plan then why did the guys do it? That was too well coordinated to be a coincidence..." Etho mumbled, more to himself than to Tango, as he walked into his room. The first thing Tango noticed is that it was freezing. And thats saying something coming from someone who has fire powers and is practically on fire every day. The next thing is that there were giant snowflakes suspended in the air, almost as if they were hung from wires, and they were glistening with the pale moonlight that shone through Etho's window. His room was extremely tidy, barely a speck of dust anywhere, a stark opposite to Tango. It made sense though, they were practically all about opposites. Tango's fire powers and Etho's ice, his outgoing personality compared to Etho's introverted, his general color scheme of warm reds and oranges against Etho's combination of muted green's and navy's. Nearly everything about the two was an opposite, but that didn't stop Tango from blushing at the thought of finally being in a room alone with Etho. He may not have come up with the plan, but he knew why Impulse did. For the second time that night Tango ran into Etho's back, again having been too deep in thought to have seen the other stop.

"Are you okay man? You seem really spacey, more than usual." Tango chose to ignore the slight insult at the end of that sentence, and instead focused on the tone of Etho's voice. There was something hidden there that Tango couldn't quite put his finger on. Almost as if Etho felt that Tango were a porcelain doll on the verge of shattering, and that Etho needed to protect Tango at all costs. Of course this only made Tango space out more. It was only when he saw Etho waving his hand in front of him that he snapped out of his daze. 

"Wh-what? Yeah! I'm totally fine, why wouldn't I be?" Tango looked away from Etho, anything so that he wouldn't see the blush that just would not go away. This however, meant that he couldn't see the smirk that crept up Etho's face. 

"Oh really? Well good thing that we've calibrated the smoke alarms to know when you're the one on fire, because right now you're nearly full on Heat Miser." At the sound of the nickname Etho had given him the cold in the room was replaced with heat, turning it into a sauna. Tango could guess that the only thing keeping the snowflakes on the ceiling from melting was that Etho was concentrating on saving them. "Tango if you keep this up you're gonna make me melt." Etho sat down at his desk and put on his best southern belle accent, which albeit wasn't a very good one, and fanned himself with his hand and draped the other one across his forehead like he was about to faint. 

The heat in the room grew more.

Tango muttered something under his breath and Etho held his hand up to his ear mockingly. "What was that Tango? I couldn't really hear you." Tango mumbled a little bit louder, but still too quiet for Etho to hear. "Sorry, one more time please?" Tango could feel the heat steadily rising, and could now see flames dancing along his arms. "Oh Tango, you look like you're gonna explode." Etho stood up from his desk and slowly walked toward Tango. "Maybe you need to cool down a bit." As he finished his sentence his powers kicked up a bit to balance out the heat flash that Tango was causing. A miniature blizzard formed around Etho, and as he got closer to the blond the snow mixed with heat and melted nearly instantly, but that didn't stop him. Etho kept walking until his face was mere inches away from Tango's, their fire and ice powers battling for control, but neither really winning. Snowflakes whipped around Etho, only to be met with flames jumping off of Tango's skin. Flames began to sizzle out where the snow fell as it melted, only to become steam as soon as it hit skin. 

They both stood like that for a while, neither wanting to back down, but also not sure where to go from their position. Until Tango finally spoke up.

"It's happening because I like you. Are you happy now? I. Like. You." Tango involuntarily held his breath, almost as if he disturbed the stillness in the room that everything would come crashing down on him and he'd be left under a pile of rubble. 

"That's what I thought you said, I just had to make sure." Etho chuckled a bit and Tango quite literally froze. He lost all concentration on his powers and the cold of Etho's room seeped into his skin. He'd never felt true cold before, since most of the time his temperature was well higher than any normal person the cold never got to him. Now, as he looked down, he could see the snowflakes accumulating on his clothes, he could feel the ice forming on his skin, and he could see the mischievous glint in Etho's eyes. 

"Y-y-you wh-what?" Tango had never heard his voice shiver before. He didn't like it.

"I heard you the first time, I just thought that you'd feel better if you said it out loud." Etho grabbed Tango's arm, his hand was oddly warm considering the snow falling in the room, and led him over to sit on the bed. Tango could soon feel the temperature in the room rising, and the snow started to melt away as his powers started to kick in again. 

"Surprisingly I do feel better. You're still a jerk for making me do that though." Etho shrugged.

"I figured it would make what I wanna do next easier if you admitted it." Tango shot him a confused look. Etho simply brought his hand up to brush a bit of Tango's hair back, even though it didn't do much good considering his hair was never tame. "I wanna kiss you Tango. If that's okay with you?" The sauna feeling was back again, and Tango could practially feel his body catching fire. There were a few things going on in his mind at this point; Etho wants to kiss me, he'll have to take his mask off to kiss me and no one has seen him without it except for when he was in the hospital, if I'm not careful I'll set Etho's bed on fire, should I even let him kiss me?, what if I burn him?, oh fuck it please kiss me. He didn't realize he had said that last thought out loud until Etho chuckled and before Tango could process what was happening he was being pushed onto his back and felt it like he was lying under a snow drift. 

In the best way possible.

The kiss was one of the most amazing sensations either of them had ever felt. For once in their lives they could feel how life was for the other with their opposite powers. 

Tango felt his muscels tense up from the cold, his teeth would be chattering if it wasn't for him kissing Etho. The cold Tango felt started to hurt, and he wondered Etho always felt this. He also wondered if it always felt like this for others to be around him. Etho seemed to have gained his powers, giving Tango the only relief from the cold coursing through his body. It was strange feeling heat come from Etho, since any other time he was in a room it always dropped by a few degrees. His skin was warm in the places that Etho's hands had found their way to, but froze once more when the hands started wandering elsewhere. He craved more of Etho's touch, craved to feel the heat radiating from him and never feel anything else. 'Please,' he thought, 'save me from the frozen wasteland.' 

Etho felt like he had just jumped into a volcano and that he was sinking into the lava. He could almost see the waves of heat radiating from him and longed for there to be a snowstorm. It was as if he was wandering the Sahara desert without water or shade. Then he found an oasis in Tango's frozen form. Seemingly made completely of ice, yet without impeded movements. Etho relished the feeling of the cold on his skin, and vowed never to let it leave. 

They both broke the kiss for a second, enough time for each of them to catch their breath (which they didn't realize they had lost in the first place) and with silent words the agreed that their shirts needed to come off. They sat unmoving for a while, content to simply stare at one another. 

Etho had seen Tango without a shirt plenty of times, seeing as how he really just didn't care around the house some times and how many times they all went swimming only to have Tango turn the pool into a hot tub. This time was different however, because Tango was lying underneath him. If someone had told him this was gonna happen, Etho never would've believed them. Never in his life did he think that it would happen this fast, and that without any hesitation he would be kissing Tango. Etho couldn't help but smile at how Tango nonchalantly had his hands behind his head, and was very smugly looking up at Etho. 

Tango was definitely curious when he realized that this would be the first time he, or anyone as far as he was aware, would see Etho shirtless. He typically always had his vest on, and even on the hottest of summer days when they were all out swimming, he wore a rash guard. He said it was because of his complexion. Something about his skin being so much like ice that a simple burn for someone else could mean weeks of pain for him, so he was always covered. Now though, Tango wanted to call him out on his bullshit. His skin was no where near as fair as he made it out to be, and oh my fucking lord he was ripped. Tango knew what kind of training they all did, but he also knew that Etho trained a lot more on the side, and it showed. All Tango could do was look up at him and grin wildly. 

"You know, I never thought I'd be the one that was on my back in this situation." Tango wanted to fluster Etho with his words, but it quickly backfired at him.

"Oh really?" Etho smirked and before Tango could react he grabbed his wrists and held them above his head. "So that means you've thought about this happening before then? What else have you thought about between us Tango?" Etho whispered those last words into Tango's ear, and the only response was a small hum from Tango. Etho quickly turned the hum into a moan as he started trailing kisses down Tango's neck and chest, then went back up to his lips for another heart stopping kiss between the two. 

Their bliss didn't last long though, because they were interrupted by the door getting thrown open.

~~

"So, at what point should we tell them it's been way longer than seven minutes?" Doc asked the others. They knew that once the time limit of the game was reached, one of two things would happen. Tango and Etho would come back into the room and continue playing, or they'd possibly never see their friends for the rest of the night.

"If you wanna be brave and interrupt them my dude, go for it, but I'm sure they'll be fine." Ren was lounging on the couch tossing a basketball up and down. He stopped paying attention to the movie the other guys put in a long time ago. "Besides, what's the downside to letting them stay in there?" 

"Yeah, I don't know about Etho, but I'd rather not have Tango angry at me. At least any more than he already will be." Impulse laughed.

"Honestly its the same with Etho." Beef sat up from where he was hiding under the blankets. Horror movies were not his thing. "I've seen him angry, and no matter how much you love to see snow, when it's flying around you so fast that all you can see is motion blur, it's not very pretty." The guys all chuckled at that and they simply went back to watching the movie, or just closed their eyes and layed there. That is until Zedaph got up to stretch his legs and saw what looked to be smoke coming from the hallway. 

"Uh, guys. We may have a problem." Zedaph pointed to the hall as Doc, Beef, and Ren looked up at him. Instantly they were all on their feet following Zed, yelling at the other two about smoke. Impulse and Bdubs opened their eyes and looked at the 'smoke' then each other. 

"That doesn't look like smoke." Bdubs told Impulse, and Impulse just shook his head.

"That's because it's not. It's steam, and I'll bet you five bucks that I know which room its coming from. I also know that those idiots are about to walk in on something they don't wanna see." 

"The question is, do we stop them or laugh at them?" Bdubs and Impulse started walking down the hallway, following the frantic yelling of their friends. 

"I say we play it by year and see what happens, then decide." Impulse said, and Bdubs nodded back at him.

They followed the 'smoke' to Etho's room, and instead of trying to be smart about it, Doc simply opened the door. Everyone except Impulse and Bdubs rushed into the room, only to stop once they saw where the 'smoke' was coming from. A very embarrassed looking Tango and Etho were caught minutes away from something that would've been much worse for them to have walked in on. After a split second of silence, everyone simply backed up out of the room and shut the door slightly. They all had a dumbfounded look on their faces, and then Doc spoke up. 

"It wasn't smoke was it?" Impulse shook his head. "Do they look angry?" Bdubs poked his head into the room and saw a fire flurry, since that was all he could think of to describe it, and nodded at Doc. He quickly stepped out of the doorway as both Tango and Etho stood up and with matching strides they walked toward the other guys. Doc didn't know what to do, so he simply told everyone to run. Once they were satisfied that everyone had ran, Tango and Etho nodded to Impulse and Bdubs, who had luckily avoided their wrath, and closed the door to Etho's room once again.

"The other guys are gonna have a fun time when those two retaliate." Impulse laughed. He and Bdubs started walking towards their own rooms, and they both wondered how entertaining their friends suffering would be. The evil masterminds of Tango and Etho had to come up with something good.


End file.
